This summer we were lucky enough to have four summer interns who were interested in learning more about the impact of the local film and television industry. At the beginning of the summer, we had Veronica intern with us. Veronica is studying business in school and was willing/interested in analyzing more than 25,000 lines of data we gave her regarding the local vendors used on the first 12 episodes of “Grimm”. Veronica took all this data and broke it down by both zip codes and vendors used. Once Veronica completed her report, three more interns came in to follow through with interviewing and documenting some of the local vendors that have been impacted by the film and Television industry. In total, Sabrina, Justen, and Jake (you can check out their twitter account @ORfilmInterns) completed 8 videos over the summer telling some of these stories. We will be rolling out all 8 videos over the next 4 weeks with the first one coming out on Monday. While we are waiting for our most recent economic study to come out later in the fall, these videos do a good job putting a face to some of the positive impacts that have happened over the last few years.

One interesting piece of data that came from Veronica’s work was the different types of vendors impacted by production. Based on her report the types of vendors impacted were as follows:

Veronica also found that 75 Oregon zip codes had a business impacted by the show, and while Portland and Multnomah county zip codes were the most frequent because of the nature of the show, the below counties were all represented in the vendor report:

Benton

Clackamas

Columbia

Deschutes

Hood River

Jackson

Josephine

Lane

Linn

Marion

Multnomah

Wasco

Washington

Yamhill

As we unveil these videos, we want to hear other stories about the impact of the local film and TV industry. Just last week I was approached by the owner of Alex Watchworks who told me the positive experiences he’s had selling watches and providing technical advice for “Grimm”. I’m sure there are more stories out there and if you want to share yours with us, please contact Nathan Cherrington at [email protected].